With Mandela's Health As Backdrop, Obama Heads To S. Africa

Children release 95 balloons to mark Nelson Mandela's upcoming birthday outside the Mediclinic Heart Hospital where Mandela is being treated for a recurring lung infection in Pretoria, South Africa.

Chip Somodevilla
/ Getty Images

Originally published on June 28, 2013 4:10 pm

Update at 4 p.m. ET: President Arrives In South Africa

President Obama and his family landed in South Africa late Friday. It's the second stop on his one-week trip to the African continent.

Our original post continues:

As we've told you, Obama planned his visit to talk about democracy and security, but this leg of the trip has taken on new meaning because everyone's attention is on ailing former South African President Nelson Mandela.

While Obama rejects direct comparisons to Mandela, the Times notes there are worthy symmetries: The "two men from different generations who made history as the first black presidents of nations with deep racial divides. Both embraced a cool pragmatism in their attempt to be post-racial leaders, and both have inspired as well as disappointed many supporters."

During Thursday's news conference, Obama recalled that his first act of political activism came in college, inspired by the anti-apartheid movement led by Mandela.

The Times reports:

"In the foreword that Mr. Obama wrote to Mr. Mandela's 2010 book, 'Conversations With Myself,' he describes the early impact that Mr. Mandela's struggle had on his life and his entry into politics.

" 'His sacrifice was so great that it called upon people everywhere to do what they could on behalf of human progress,' Mr. Obama wrote. 'In the most modest of ways, I was one of those people who tried to answer his call.' "